King-Fall

XIII. Vulthuryol

The lift lowered us into the unnatural blue light of Blackreach. Serana gasped at the sight, the beauty of all the light in this Dwemer tomb. Glowing mushrooms the size of Tel Mithryn were spotted amongst the glowing spores encased in this space but I wasn't looking at that... I was looking at her smile.

I shook my head and tried to concentrate but in vain. Why? I thought, why after all these years does she come now? Then I remembered her trying to tell me a secret on that rooftop in Solitude. Was that it? She really needed to tell me something?

"Serana," I shifted my bag on my shoulder as the lift landed, "why did you come back?"

Instantly Serana couldn't look at me. "C'mon," she murmured, stepping into Blackreach, "we got a job to do."

"I know you're not naive enough to think you could have got me back. You're smarter than that, there's a reason. One that's important to you."

"Look," she uttered in a no-nonsense voice, and turned to face me, "the reason I'm here now is to help you put your family back together. If you didn't come to get me in my camp I would have left Solitude on the note of what I told you on the rooftop that night."

"That I was your father but in another body, another situation?" I said stepping closer, "Or that you never told me that secret?"

Her eye twitched. "Both."

"Serana," I cooed, "what is it?"

"Don't say my name like that Talion." She turned and kept walking, "It's hard enough stuffing down the old joys of hearing your heart pound when you are around me."

Ugh, I mentally groaned, my heart was pounding right now for some uncomfortable reason.

I caught up to her in stride. "Any guesses where to go?"

"That light." Serana bit out, gesturing to a large suspended orb giving off a yellow light.

"Alright."

Letting her take point I noted Serana shaking her head in mental debate. While walking I tried to reflect on the conversation that night in Solitude on top of the Blue Palace.

"If you tell me your secrets, I'll tell you mine."

"Talion, you are becoming my father." She said.

"Serana," I lied to her and myself this time, "I'm not your father."

She picked up the lie and frowned as she shook her head.

"No, you feel worse than that don't you?"

"Yes," I admitted aloud to myself, "yes I do."

Serana crouched down suddenly and so did I. Having crept closer to her, shadows forming around me, I leaned out over cover to spot some Falmer by a fire. They seemed to be talking and for unknown reasons I was reminded of the history of the Falmer. They were once the great Snow Elves, driven by the Nords into the cracks of the earth for fear of death. Now what remains of their once beautiful society is their ugly, blind, and violent posterity.

Then there was Gelebor and his vampire snow elf brother Vyrthur. Vyrthur was trying to enact a prophecy that would erase vampire's weaknesses to sunlight, and all he needed was to sacrifice my lover at the time: Serana. Needless to say I didn't let that happen.